


Spoiled

by impossiblesongs



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-31
Updated: 2013-02-02
Packaged: 2017-11-27 16:15:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/663953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/impossiblesongs/pseuds/impossiblesongs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He's taking her to the Singing Towers, soon he'll have to face Amy and Rory.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_ Part One _   


He's tinkering around in the TARDIS, nervous, hands brushing across the console just to keep himself from being occupied with the feeling of dread overtaking his hearts for the last month. It's almost time. The Singing Towers are waiting in all of their gloriousness and he has yet to make the step towards that glory. A fools glory, he thinks with a sad smile.

"Okay, what is it you're trying to hide." Amy leans against the console, her eyes peaked with interest.

The Doctor regains some of his composure before looking back at her. "This and that. Things a Pond should never know of." He teased. He knew very well he would have to face the Ponds after Darillium. After River had gone to the library.

It's a feeling that's always marking him in ways that sting and burn inside of him deeper than any feeling he's ever come across. It's not just because River's death is his fault to which he will never forgive himself for, it's because it's something he should _not_ be forgiven for. Of the time that has passed glimpses of his wife have unfolded and pieced itself together to paint the entire picture of who she is to him. However big or little the moments are where their lives coincide he is haunted by her tears. He watched her die, but that's not the worst of it. It was _him_. Back then, a lifetime away where he didn't know and refused to acknowledge who and what she was, is, to him. That, he thinks, is the worst of it all. How he hurts her whether he means to or not. He can't even chance trying to fix them. Time cannot always be rewritten and theirs certainly can't.  

He'd never thought he could find anything like this. This complicated, mad and brilliant being that is River Song. A child of time and space who is as quick as he is and just as clever. Where he ends, she begins. It's a relationship of symmetry and a meeting of equals. Her hand is cleverly built to tighten around his just as his Tardis is built for him to travel on.

He felt Amy tug on his jacket. "Come back to me would you?" She pleaded.

He smirked and kissed the top of that impossible ginger head of hers. "Oh, Amy. I always do."

After an hour or so they had fallen into their own usual rhythm and it didn't take long for a night's rest calling to be had. He bid Amy 'sweet dreams' to which she made him promise to catch some shut eye himself. That wasn't going to happen so rule one came in handy. "I will." he lied.

The Doctor sighed. His Tardis took to a tune, the old girl all wibbly and excited. There was only one cause for that. He went forth to the doors and swung them open. 

"Hello sweetie." She gave him a small peck on the cheek before moving past him and stepping up on to the console. 

"How did you find us?" he asked.

River grinned, "My love, you should know by now that I really don't need you to answer your phone anymore just to track you down."

He tried to match her grin but his hearts weren't in it. "River," he said instead, "I have something planned for us. Something you've been asking for quite some time now." 

She turned to him with a wry smile, "Oh, have my charms finally worked on you Doctor?" She tugged on his bowtie affectionately.

He smirked and took her hand in his, lifting it to his lips and placing a gentle kiss there, "They always work on me."

He then moved closer and kissed her properly, eyes falling shut and begging to stay shut so as this one moment would last with him forever.

Her hands moved inside his tweed jacket and pulled his far too gangly limbs closer to her. She sighed when they parted. "So, I'm assuming you mean Darillium?"

"Yes." he answered.

Her smile blurred his vision with its beauty. "I've been waiting for years it seems." She laughed.

"I should make you wait a couple dozen millennium." He joked. "But I can't deny you anything for long."

Her smile was taken and replaced with a frown, eyes concerned.  "What's wrong Doctor?"

"Oh, nothing," he only held her closer, "Tired mostly."

"You impossible man." she scolded lightly, "You never did know how to get to bed unless someone dragged you." 

"River Song," Her name fell from his lips as if she were a ghost already, "You've never forcefully dragged me into anything I wasn't willing to jump into. Not really. Never quite figured out why back in the early days. It drove me quite mad."

She watched him, curious. "You're acting stranger than usual." 

He willed himself to smile. "I just want you to know that I've never loved anyone quite like you and I've never felt anyone love me as you have. I want to thank you for that. You're magnificent, River Song."

"You're speaking as if one of us has died, Doctor." She laughed. "Now come on, off to bed with you." She took his hand and pulled him towards their room.

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

He'd left the Pond's for a year and a few months (in their timeline). It had just been less than a month since he'd taken River to Darillium.

The Tardis's felt dim and she seemed to be in mourning.

So he sits in this darkened place. River had been downloaded into the computer for a few hours now. The information toppled onto the monitors suddenly as he was working underneath the console. His hearts fled at the sound. It was a low bleep in the monitor and it was confirmed. 

_River Song has been saved._

His hands shook and he tried to keep from breaking down but the tears were there, they kept building behind his eyelids. His anger and grief he'd kept untouched bled through his hearts. It had been conjured from long ago and it had built up so thickly that it staggered him to his knees with the weight of it.

It takes him less than a month before he finds himself in front of the Pond's home. Amy of course came running out from the blue front door of her home at the sound of the Tardis materializing.

"Doctor!" Her smile was bright and her arms curled around him, comforting him and silently killing him at the same time. "Thought last time would be the last I've seen of you!" She pulled back, cheeks rosy and pink with happiness.

"Where's the Roman?" He offered the best smile he could.

"He's working. Ought to be home for lunch though. Come on, come inside I have someone I need you to meet."

The Doctor followed, the ache in his hearts unbearable. Amy had excused herself quickly. When she came back into the room she was not alone.

"Doctor," Amy smiled, "This is my daughter, Sara Williams." 

The Doctor couldn't help the joyous grin that plastered itself across his face. "You! - It! - Oh, my Pond!"  He was giddy with excitement until he remembers he had been through this before only it was a different tiny someone he was looking down at. 

"Doctor," Amy watched him with a worried brow, "What's wrong?"

"Amelia, I need to talk to you and Rory." he said, voice tight.

"You never call me Amelia." Amy was starting to look truly startled now.

"It's… important. Can we sit down for a bit?" The Doctor asked.

"Yeah, of course."

Amy had put Sara back down and led him into the kitchen. She fetched a plate of fish fingers and custard before sitting opposite him on the kitchen table. "What? Me and Rory snack on your favorite from time to time. You do tend to rub off on us Ponds if you haven't noticed."

He didn't touch the plate and a silence spread through the room. Amy kicked his feet underneath the table and he looked up to see her expectant face.

"Have you seen River?" He asked.

"Nope. It's been about… seven months. It was a week for her but time goes differently for you two. Why? Has she been missing in action?"

The Doctor could have outright cried. "I'd really prefer if Rory were here. I need to tell you both something. It's… I need to tell you that – "

Before he can continue the sound of the front door being shut is followed by Rory's voice. "Is he here?! Is it him?!" 

"We're in the kitchen stupid face!" Amy called out.

Rory appeared looking out of breath. "I heard the Tardis, came running from the hospital. You're really here!" Rory grinned at the Doctor. He looked so genuinely pleased to see him. "It's been a good long while since you've come 'round." Rory says.

"Hello Rory."

"The Doctor says he has news or something." Amy shrugged. Rory nodded, dropped his bag and took the chair beside her. "If you came to tell us we're going to be grandparents it's about damn time." The Roman joked.

The Doctor's face fell.

Amy and Rory took a glance at each other.

"Doctor what is it?" Amy reached over to grab the Doctor's hand in hers.

"I'm so sorry Amy. Rory." The Doctor began.

"Doctor, what's wrong?" Rory asked, his worried tone only making this all the harder for Rory likely thought it was something wrong with him, not his daughter.

The Doctor held back his tears and looked at his Ponds. His mad, impossible Ponds.

"River is dead."

Amy stared blankly and Rory stilled.

"No." Amy said softly, a nervous smile spreading. "No." 

"How?" Rory choked out.

"No!" Amy shouted suddenly, standing so abruptly the chair she was sitting on fell backwards and crashed onto the floor. "You tell us something else because that is not true!" 

"Amy." Rory stood, placing steady hands on Amy's shoulders. Her anger flared even more.

"No!" She repeated. There was nothing soft in her voice now only a resolute outpour of her anger. "You are lying!"

"Amy, come on, sit down." Rory said quietly, grabbing the chair and helping Amy sit again.

"You tell me what you mean." Amy's voice was calm, devoid of emotion. It was worse than her shouting.

The Doctor looked to Rory, River's father, only questions behind in his eyes.

"I met River when I was younger. Before I had met you Amy. Timelines." He started. "She died saving me."

"But that's not possible." A tear slid down Amy's cheek. "That is not possible because _I_ would know. I am her mother."

"It doesn't work like that." the Doctor replied.

"That's not true, I don't believe it. You always save her. Always." But her eyes betrayed her because she knew enough to hear beyond his words where lies and truth divide themselves. "You are her husband. How dare you show your face and lie, so blatantly Doctor?"

"Amy." Rory tried.

Amy shook her head. "Get out."

"Amy…" The Doctor tried.

"Get the hell out!" Amy sobbed. "Don't come back!" 

The Doctor nodded and did as he was told.

He was a few steps from the Tardis when Rory called out to him. When the Doctor turned he was met with Rory's fist.

"That's for my daughter." Rory said and then offered his hand. The Doctor took it and let Rory help him stand up again.

"I knew it, you know? I always knew it would end like this." Rory confessed. "You two. She killed you and," Rory laughed, the sound a sadness pouring out of him. "And you ended up killing her."

"Rory I am..." the Doctor trailed off.

"Don't." Rory shook his head. "I forgive you." Rory nodded, tears in his eyes. "And I don't know why that is exactly. Maybe it's because I do know you loved my daughter more than anyone in this universe or any other universe inbetween. Amy knows that, and she'll forgive you too. Not now. Not in a very long time. Doctor?" Rory waited for the Doctor to look at him. "We watched you run. And you can only run for so long." He wiped at his eyes and turned away, walking back inside his home to console Amy. 

The Doctor disappeared inside his Tardis and locked her doors. He walked up the the console and the monitors were blinking. There had been a phone call. He recognized it and dialed back.

"Doctor." The voice that picked up brought back even more history, more loss.

"Yes, Jack." He sighs, "How can I help?"

"Well, first of all I didn't get an invite to the wedding. Shame on you Doctor," even without being able to see him the Doctor could hear a full smile in Jack's voice. "Second of all, I may have accidentally found something of yours and kind of found a way to bring it back. She says 'Hello sweetie'."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> River's out of the Library, time to give the Ponds their daughter back.

_Part Two_

"I don't understand, how did this happen? How were you able to contact me?" The Doctor walked down the steps into Torchwood beside Jack.

"Martha helped. And I, well I uh," Jack rubbed the back of his neck. "I got stuck in there."

The Doctor paused, "Stuck where?"

"In the computer." Jack cringed as if embarrassed, "Yeah, I fumbled with some wires I probably shouldn't have and then I ended up in this great little universe that is just… full of horrible. Seriously Doctor, did you think a place like that would be enough for her?"

The Doctor ran a hand over his face, tired and worn from his visit to his Ponds. "It's all I could think of at that time." he answered.

"Yeah, time. That goes by really slow in there by the way." Jack continued leading through the place. "Like I was saying, I got stuck and surprisingly I died in there. I don't know how, I mean not  _die_  die. I mean, look at me." Jack smiled, "But I did get erased permanently. Something brought me back. It seems me and Mrs. Doctor have a bond caused by a fixed point, so she says. I can't die and I died in a place where no one can die and it really did have quite an effect on CAL. My bleep in the system seemed to cause some sort of upset that ended up purging me from it and in toe," Jack motioned to his office, "her."

When the Doctor reached the room he was greeted by the sight that took his breath away. The hair, oh, the  _hair_.

Jack cleared his throat and politely excused himself.

River finally turned. To anyone else's eyes she probably looked fine but those eyes hid nothing from him. She looked worn and tired, even more so that himself. He could see so much going on inside of those eyes but she offered him a smile instead.

"Hello sweetie." Her tone was filled with a defined loss. It makes him break a little more.

"River." He rushed to her and pulled her into his arms.

She felt frail. So fragile and so  _lost_. If anything he tried to save her not break her. But here she was. In his arms. She feels like a shell of a woman, almost all of her gone.

"You left me  _there_." Her voice was half-muffled against his neck but he could her how it broke when it left her lips.

"I didn't mean to. I couldn't find a way to get you back." He shut his eyes, hugging her tighter. She let out a small cry, pained from his embrace or his admittance he didn't know. He was sorry and he said as such. He said it over and over again, clinging onto his wife dearly.

There was a knock on the door and River tried to extricate herself. He can feel that she wants the distance because she's upset about the whole situation but more than that she's he's upset with  _him_.

Jack spoke then, "I need a word Doctor."

He reluctantly pulled away. She didn't look at him and instead sat down on the chair beside her. He turns his attention to Jack and follows the other man out of the office.

"I don't want to impose, Doctor... but what is she?" Jack questioned, "What did she mean by fixed points?"

"She's my wife." The Doctor smirked.

"She's not human is she?" Jack studied him briefly. "She looks human."

"And you look Timelord."

"Okay, fine but..." the Doctor saw Jack slowly putting it all together. "No. It can't... she's a Timelord isn't she? Timelady."

The Doctor simply stared.

Jack's answering grin was cheeky. "Doctor, you've done pretty good for yourself."

"Watch it, Harkness. But yes and no. Her parents are human. She was created in the Tardis."

"Wait, so you married your companion's daughter?" A sly, dirty glimmer sparked in Jack's eyes.

"Oi, don't say it like that!" The Doctor cringed, "There's a lot more to the story. We don't meet in the right order. The first time I met her she," He paused, "she died."

Jack's smile slowly faded. "She died at the Library. All those years back I knew something had happened but I didn't know what. I didn't want to ask you either. You lose people I knew that but the look in your eyes the last time I saw you was different."

"When I met River Song I didn't know who she was but she knew me and she knew my name." He recalled now with fondness. "I met her that day and then she died. And then we kept meeting back to front."

Jack nodded. "She told me, when we were in the computer, how she knew you. She was surprised. She told me she'd heard a lot of  _interesting_  things about me but she didn't have a face to put to the name. She smiled a lot when she talked about you. I knew she must have been talking about a new you because I couldn't see you keeping that face you had for long. I kind of kept tabs on you." Jack smirked. "Good face by the way. You're looking younger than me now. I'm jealous."

The Doctor laughed. "Thank you, Jack."

"For what, Doctor?"

"For dying."

They both shared a lengthy laugh.

Jack was the first who spoke again.

"You two better get going. You have a lot to make up for."

The Doctor nodded and an idea came to mind. The Ponds would be getting their daughter back. What better than to bring them the man who gave them their daughter back in the first place?

"Jack, would you like to come along for one last trip?" The Doctor offered knowing the answer.

 

 

* * *

 

 

"It's different." Jack smiled as he took in the new design of the Tardis. "Still the same though."

River had walked in and headed straight for their bedroom.

"So where to Doctor?" Jack moved up to join him at the console.

"I want you to meet Amy and Rory." The Doctor fiddled around with the controls before feeling the familiar bounce of Tardis in motion.

"River's parents?"

"Yes." he confirmed.

"You know you don't have to tell them how she got out, Doctor. Just bring her back. They won't care how she got out or who got her out."

"But it's not proper, Jack. You saved her. They deserve to meet you and you deserve to meet them." The Doctor smiled. "You are one of my companions after all."

Jack smiled and leaned against the railings of the console. "Oh, really? Never thought you thought of me as one."

"Why not? Of course I did. You're Captain Jack Harkness!"

Jack's smile only widened. "You've gotten soft in your old age, old man."

The Doctor chuckled. "I'm grown old, Jack. That woman in that bedroom is the only thing I have left besides this Tardis. If I lose either I can't be certain I will be able to bear it."

"I highly doubt they are the only things you have."

The Tardis landed.

"Ah, here we are. About two months later." He flicked the switch on the monitor and the screen went black. "I should go get River. Wait here."

The Doctor wandered down the long halls until he found their bedroom. The door was open. Her hair was drenched, she had obviously taken a very quick shower, and she was sitting on the bedside looking down at a photograph.  
It was one she had kept of herself, Amy, and Rory when they were children.

"You know I don't know how you looked my parent's in the face all this time knowing what was going to happen."  
The Doctor flinched at that. "I didn't know how it was going to happen, not all of it. When I did I could only hold on to what was in front of me, River. Please believe me if there was any other way..."

"Don't you dare." She looked at him, finally really looked. "Don't you dare change a thing." She pulled him into her arms.

"Jack is waiting. We better get going." The Doctor spoke into her wet unruly curls.

River sighed and pulled away. "So be it."

He had thought to change his mind and simply pull her back and stay with her like this, just the two of them together because nothing else mattered right then.

 

* * *

 

 

These two months had been hard. No other answers. No body to bury. No real way to grieve.

Amy was cooking in the kitchen when she heard it. She stayed still until there was a knock at the door. Rory was coming in from the back of the house because he knew the sound just as well as she did. There was more knocking.

"Amy, someone at the door?"

"Just leave it be, Rory."

Rory could see through that tone and ignored it. He knew she was casting murderous glares his way.

He fully expected to see one person standing at his doorstep. Perhaps it was an earlier Doctor. One who hadn't visited them with the news of River yet. He dreaded to think how things would go if it was. He prepared himself before pulling the door open.

"Amy." He called out. "Amy!" he shouted.

There were footsteps heard around the house before the red head appeared and went absolutely still when she caught sight of River.

"You can't be…" Amy walked forward in small steps. "River?"

"Mum." River nodded.

The Pond women embraced then. Amy's arms pulled her daughter into a tight hug, eyes tearing up and a pained smile appearing on Amy's face.

"Oh, God, I never thought I would see you again." Amy whispered, "My Melody."

River laughed gently at that. "Oh mother."

The Doctor could feel Amy's eyes on him when they pulled apart. "You lied to us then?"

"I thought she was gone. I was sure. I was wrong." The Doctor gave a glance over to Jack. "This is a very good friend of mine, Jack Harkness. He got River out."

"Out? Out from where?" Rory asked.

"It's a long story." Jack smiled.

 

 

* * *

 

 

"You have a little sister." Amy informed River. The mother couldn't stop smiling at her daughter and constantly had to wipe away at the emerging tears.

"Oh, do I? How exciting!" This smile was the first real smile River had expressed since the Doctor saw her.

"Her name is Sara." Rory informed. "She's got my good looks."

Amy laughed, "Right, more like big nose and scrawny legs."

"That's your daughter you're talking about it." Rory pointed out to her.

River's laughter was a perfect symphony to the Doctor's ears.

Rory turned his attention to the Doctor. "Explain it to us then, Doctor. What happened?"

The Doctor looked to Jack who nodded for him to go on. He looked to his wife and found she wasn't looking back.  
"When I first met River she died in my place. Back then I didn't know who she was but she seemed to know all about me. The only way I could have saved her was by having her downloaded into the data and routed it into the computer in the Library."

"Then why did you tell us she died, Doctor? Why didn't you tell us exactly what had happened?" Rory asked.

"Because she was dead, technically." Jack spoke up. "The Doctor did the only thing he could in that situation. He saved your daughter. To be perfectly honest I wouldn't be here if he wouldn't have done that."

"And how did you fit into this whole thing Mr. Harkness?" Amy asked. "You're not from around here I gather."

"No, ma'am. And please call me Jack."

"Stop it." River said, smirking. Jack smiled back at her.

"As I was saying, the Library is run by CAL, she kept River's consciousness alive in the computer after she died. She was downloaded into the system and was able to survive within computer. That was a smart move, the only move to make if you were in that position." Jack glanced at the Doctor.

"I wandered into the Library a few times but nothing peaked my interest until one night I did some personal research on yours truly," Jack motioned to the Doctor, "Which seems to always lead to a predicament in my case. I must have hit something in the hard drive because all of a sudden I'm in the most colorful place I could imagine. Fresh clean air, beautiful horizon, and a beautiful woman I thought I was in heaven."

River chuckled.

"Anyway, I somehow ended up in the same place River was in except I didn't die to get there. That caused an upset in the computer and I was erased from the hard drive. Now, this might sound strange to you but I can't die."

"Wait, you can't die?" Rory leaned forward. "Is there a club for this in the Tardis that I'm missing or?"

Jack laughed. "You too, huh?"

"Boys, care to get back to the story or do you want to show your death certificates first?" River teased.

"Right, sorry." Jack laughed. "I died in the computer. A computer where death is non-existent. The computer simply isn't built that way. From what I could come up with River and I wear one small thing that keeps us linked. We have remnants of the Tardis in our veins. So when I got erased from the memory I caused a backlash that kicked off some sort of clean out system. From what I can tell it mistook us as a virus. Whatever was inside of me was caught lingering in River's own genes and wiped us both out of the datacore."

"So it was only a chance happening?" Amy asked.

"Yep." Jack confirmed. "So really it's all one big example of time saving our asses for once instead of the other way around. The computer is specifically programmed to spit out any signs of a virus before it can cause any permanent damage."

"So you didn't leave her to die then?" Amy addressed the Doctor. "You still saved her."

"I didn't know what else to do." He admitted.

"Now that's a first." Amy nodded and the small smile the Doctor so loved emerged.

"Jack, thank you. For bringing our daughter back to us." Rory added.

"The pleasure was all mine." Jack sent a devious look River's way. "So now, tell me more about this dying stuff. We really should start a club, what do you think Doctor?"

The Doctor looked over to River and she smiled. The light in her seemed to be coming back and when she spoke she put both of her hearts into it. "Go on, my love. Let's hear your say in it."

"I think it's about time."

**_THE END_ **


End file.
